The use of touch-sensitive surfaces as input devices for computers and other electronic computing devices has increased significantly in recent years. Exemplary touch-sensitive surfaces include touch pads and touch screen displays. Such surfaces are widely used to select, launch, and manage software applications.
For electronic devices with touch-sensitive displays, existing methods for navigating through concurrently open applications are cumbersome and inefficient. For example, portable devices with small screens (e.g., smart phones and tablets) typically display a single application at a time, even though multiple applications may be running on the device. With such devices, a user may have difficulty navigating through the currently open applications. This situation creates a significant cognitive burden on a user. In addition, existing methods for navigating through currently open applications take longer than necessary, thereby wasting energy. This latter consideration is particularly important in battery-operated devices.